February 2016

Month

Father and Son Skiing

I feel very privileged to have a wife and two kids who all enjoy skiing as much as I do. I feel even more privileged to have a family who turns out to be fairly competent at skiing. I always dreamt of kids, who would overtake me at skiing at the age to 14, 15 – I’m afraid, this point is nearer than I would have thought with Max. Today Max skipped school in the morning and we set off to hike Subpeak, a little summit just above the Stoke chairlift, highest point in the Revelstoke Mountain resort. The short hike covers 120m altitude – not too much, but it climbs up quite steeply; not so easy to negotiate for a 10 year old.

We had a couple of warm-up laps with a friend and his daughter; when we pushed over to Sweet Spot (check out Revelstoke’s North Bowl trail map) we passed some truly wintery trees on the way:

Icy trees at Sweet Spot — Snowy trees on the way to Sweet Spot at Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s North Bowl.

Max and I had talked about hiking Subpeak for a while Continue reading →

February 24, 2016 2

Impressions of Kicking Horse

Race weekends are fun: the kids are having a great time meeting and competing with lots of other kids (in Kicking Horse we had around 170 starters) and the Breadbaskets get to see other ski resorts.

So, the last weekend, as you know, let us to Kicking Horse. Kicking Horse is in the Purcell Mountains, one step closer to the Rockies from the Selkirks, where we’re usually roaming. Kicking Horse is the name of the ski resort, approximately 20 minutes from Golden, a rather charmless village at the Canadian Highway No. 1.

We stayed in a classic motel not too far from the highway, the Days Inn in Golden. These inns are not the most charming of all places, but they are very convenient.

The Day Inn - Motel in Golden — Breadbaskets and bad-ass monster truck in front of room #106 at the Days Inn in Golden. Drove the baggage right into the room. Charming, isn’t it?

As practical as this might look, the view across the parking lot was a different story: Continue reading “Impressions of Kicking Horse” →

Kicking Horse – Yet another race

The Breadbasket kids were at it again, this time in Kicking Horse, about 2 hours East of Revelstoke in the Purcell Mountains.

And the results were beautiful: Continue reading “Kicking Horse – Yet another race” →

February 22, 2016 1

Tree hugging

In some countries “tree hugging” is known as having originated from the Chipka movement; a non-violent protest against deforestation. Here in Revelstoke we have “Glades” which are mapped out tree-skiing areas where trees have been selectively cut down to provide nice, easy skiing. These tree-glades I can just about manage with a few “oh no – I’m too fast!”, “braaaaakkke…!”and “shiiii….t” and still I end up straddling a few of the bastards. One time I even went head-first into one, when my ski released in an awkward moment, and I ended up having to pull myself out by the help of tree branches. It was not a dignified and elegant sight. I picked branches out of my gear for hours.

Trädkramare — Tree hugging Sweden-style: “Don’t you even TRY to cut down this sick elm…!” Image SVT.se / TT arkiv

But I was little prepared for our Backcountry trip on Tuesday where we, due to high risk of avalanches, ended up skiing the Teddybear Trees. I thought: “I can manage a few baby trees, that can’t be that hard?” But HELL… the trees stood as imposing and tight as a North Korean Military Parade. I was NOT happy on my Telemark skis and wish I hadn’t so boldly stated that “aahh – don’t worry about me, I can alpine ski these babies down ANYTHING”. Like hell I could…. Continue reading “Tree hugging” →

February 20, 2016 0

Captain Canada

Constable Seanan Sharp, is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (yeah – a real Mountie!), who as part of his job goes to local schools and teaches the kids about Drug Prevention. D.A.R.E stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or as one of the kids in Max’s class said, Drugs Are Really Evil! This is a community based program that is assisted by the police and runs from Grade 5 all the way up to Grade 12. The goal is to teach kids how to say No to drugs and how to deal with peer pressure.

Constable Sharp hands Max his D.A.R.E certificate

Continue reading “Captain Canada” →

February 15, 2016 5

50 Days of Skiing…

…in a row. To make it short: do I have enough now? Nope. It’s fun, a lot of fun, actually. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is a superb ski area.

The whole family on a bluebird day. Bunny Molly, Mad Max, Powder Anna and Dan Vader.

Telemarking – I love the, albeit not always visible, elegance of the movement. Super smooth, demanding on the thigh muscles but easy on the knees – I love the free heel.

Climbed Subpeak (well, it’s actually only 115m altitude, but the path leads up pretty straight, so is demanding for the part time ski bums) on a foggy day. Worth it? Worth it!

Clouds on the lower mountain. Sometimes rain. But so far always great on top. Apart from the two days of crusty sheets of ice.

Bluebird on the higher mountain. Clouds on the lower mountain. Typical Revelstoke.

The guys who run the show here say the mountain has three weather zones – and they are right. Continue reading “50 Days of Skiing…” →

February 14, 2016 0

Revelstoke Ski Club Race

February is a fairly raceless month for the kids, so Revelstoke Ski Club decided on a local race: Saturday night we had a dual slalom, where Molly certainly gave it her best.

The flood lit dual slalom was a great success: the kids were having enormous fun and the parents had a laugh, too.

Sunday followed with an exciting Glalom (a mix of Slalom and Giant Slalom elements), where the kids in all age groups had to give it their best to bring down good runs. Continue reading “Revelstoke Ski Club Race” →

February 8, 2016 1

A Day in the Helicopter

February 4th, 2016 – Anna and I were sitting in our monster truck on the way to meet the Tangier Selkirks guys for a day of heli skiing. In the car we were having mixed thoughts: snow was falling hard, we were looking at 15-20cm of fresh snow and the valley was covered in clouds. This would have been fun in the resort, too, we thought.

Continue reading “A Day in the Helicopter” →

February 7, 2016 1

My little Duckling

Molly, who has never showed much of an interest in any type of after-school sport activity, has insisted in joining the Revelstoke “AquaDucks” swim club. It might have something to do with her new best friend Eula attending but I’m just happy that she finally wants to do something else than just watch YouTube clips of “My little Pony”.

The only snag is that Molly can’t swim. While the others are warming up with four lengths of freestyle, Molly does ten meters of doggy style. But what the heck – she shows great commitment and determination! Surprisingly, the swim coaches let her stay in the group: “Aww, she has her friends here so let her stay…”. Here in Revelstoke sport is all about fun – and the kids are having lots of it!

February 5, 2016 0

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